Cardiff, UK · Welsh folk

The Gentle Good

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Gareth Bonello's Welsh-language folk — riverbank fingerstyle and hiraeth, tradition carried gently forward, one of Cardiff's quietest treasures.

The Gentle Good is the project of Cardiff musician Gareth Bonello, who writes and performs in both Welsh and English. His work draws on traditional Welsh song and fingerstyle guitar, often set in sparse arrangements with strings, and he has an academic and research interest in folk traditions that extends beyond his own recordings.

Bonello has also worked with musicians outside Wales, including collaborations shaped by time spent in China, and his albums tend to combine original songwriting with material rooted in traditional sources. His singing is understated, and the records generally favour quiet detail over volume.

His latest album, Elan, was written during a year spent off-grid in the Cambrian Mountains. It explores the landscapes and history of Cwm Elan, a valley flooded in the nineteenth century to create reservoirs supplying drinking water to English cities, taking on a psychedelic folk cast alongside its traditional roots.

Alongside his usual cello, piano and guitar, the album adds synthesiser and strings, along with influences from further afield, including Rajasthani folk music. The songs carry a sense of haunting drawn from the valley's flooded past.

Bonello has won both the Welsh Language Album of the Year and the Welsh Music Prize, awards that mark a body of work built steadily over many releases within Welsh-language music.

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Welsh folk